Sentinel of the Eternal Watch
Most defensive walls in white play their part by standing still: a tall toughness, vigilance, and a wide body that punishes a swing. This one inverts that logic. Rather than waiting to block, it reaches across the table and taps a creature before the attack step even resolves, on each opponent's turn, every turn it lives. The effect is a tempo tax disguised as a 4/6 sentry. An aggressive opponent loses a beater to the tap each combat; a defensive opponent loses a blocker right when they would have wanted to commit it. The wrinkle worth dwelling on is the timing: because the trigger fires at the beginning of combat on the opponent's turn, the chosen creature is locked down before attackers are declared, so a single Sentinel can functionally neutralize a key threat round after round without ever entering combat itself. Vigilance is the quiet enabler here, since the body that taxes their attack is still free to swing into the gaps it creates. The rate is honest for what it does, and the design sits in a recognizable white tradition of bodies that win the long game by denying the opponent's best line rather than racing them. It asks for patience and a board it expects to outlast.
